Search Results: freedom of speech

Senator Judith Troeth is one of few Liberals who have spoken out against harsh features of immigration policy under Howard. In crossing the floor to vote with the Government this week, she said the Liberal Party 'has a proud story to tell on immigration, but both parties over the last 50 years have written some bleak chapters too'

Shariah law in Malaysia has seen Muslims banned from attending a Black Eyed Peas RnB concert, and a woman sentenced to be caned for drinking beer in public. All's not what it seems in this slickly-marketed, 'moderate
Islamic' tourist magnet.

Reflections on the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing can help us understand the major themes of Pope Benedicts's social encyclical, and explain why many critics of this radical document have
missed the point.

In April, Germany's highest court ruled against animal rights group PETA. It said the Holocaust is part of the identity of being a Jew, and any attempt to use the fate of the victims for trivial reasons is a defamation of the religion.

Last week, Pope Benedict gave Kevin Rudd a copy of his new encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Rudd gave the Pope a copy of the National Apology. I wonder what the radical Redfern priest Ted Kennedy would have made of this exchange of literary gifts.

Fitna is a heavy handed piece of anti-Muslim propaganda. It plays into the kinds of sentiments and fears that are exposed when, for example, plans are put forward to build a Muslim school on Sydney's southwest fringe.

Sex scandals can make celebrities out of the most unlikely figures. But just how similar is the case of the Oxford poetry professorship candidate accused of sexually harrassing his students, and Australian Rugby League's group sex scandal?

The Sri Lankan Government has been accused of endangering and killing
civilians. The Tamil
Tigers have been accused of using civilians as human shields. While the fog of war may be dissipating, media on the ground continue to be stifled.

The Pope visited the Middle East in an attempt to address the controversy regarding 'Holocaust denier' Bishop Richard Williamson. In the same week, in Australia, 'revisionist' historian Frederick Toben was sentenced to three months in jail.

Bloggers
are being hunted and jailed in countries such as Burma and Iran. In Western nations they are incurring the wrath of disgruntled mainstream journalists. The plight of St Mary's South Brisbane holds a useful metaphor for this crusade on free speech.

Good
intentions are not enough. Gone should be the days when Aboriginals are marginal to the corridors of power. Perhaps it will not be until we have seen the first Aboriginal Prime
Minister that agitators for Indigenous justice will be vindicated.